'Red train' tour company to be sold

Owner of St. Augustine Trains Inc. cites health reasons behind move

File Photo A.H. Tebault, owner of St. Augustine Trains Inc., said Thursday he is negotiating with Ripley Entertainment Inc. of Orlando for the sale of his tour company.

St. Augustine Trains runs the red trains and is the larger of two companies offering historic tours through downtown.

The St. Augustine City Commission is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to approve any change in the franchise agreement. Tebault said he will be asking the city for permission as the first step.

Tebault, 68, cited health reasons for unloading the company.

"St. Augustine is a great town, and this is a great business, but my health is such that I just can't do it anymore," Tebault said.

Tebault owned The St. Augustine Record from 1963 to 1966, and he managed it until 1973.

He said he enjoyed working with his 40 employees over the past 20 years. Those employees would remain under new ownership if the sale goes through, he said.

Ripley Entertainment, which owns Ripley's Believe It or Not! attractions in St. Augustine and other cities, owns 44 attractions in 10 countries, plus a cartoon and a syndicated television series.

The company is owned by the Vancouver, British Columbia-based Jim Pattison Group, which employs 26,000 people and reports $5.5 billion in sales.

Company officials did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

St. Augustine City Manager Bill Harriss characterized the franchise change as a formality that is likely to be approved.

"They have to ask for our blessing," Harriss said.

St. Augustine Trains was founded in 1946 when Genevieve and James Blanton started the operation with $300 and a sightseeing bus line. They began buying trains and eventually brought all of the trains in the city under one corporation.

Genevieve Blanton, who later married James M. McClure Sr., said the five owners of the train companies frequently argued over operations.

"It was a much better operation when they were under one corporation," Genevieve McClure said.

The company grew over the years and McClure sold her interest in it to the remaining partners in 1980.

"It was phenomenal growth after Disney World opened," McClure said.

When Tebault bought the company, it operated five trains, he said. Now it has 13 trains, three buses, four vans and a handicapped van, he said.

It's the leading transportation business in town, Tebault said.

With Ripley's Entertainment poised to take over, Tebault expects the company to continue to expand.

Harriss said the ownership change would move the train company from a mom-and-pop to a corporate business. The company operating the green trolleys, Historic Tours of America, also is a national presence in the tourism industry.

Harriss said Ripley's has been a long-time taxpayer and participant in the St. Augustine tourism adventure.